L-E grinds out 7-6 Senior Night victory

Liberty-Eylau had plenty to celebrate on Senior Night, including a regular-season finale win over cross-town rival Pleasant Grove.

L-E and the Lady Hawks traded momentum back-and-forth all game, but it was the Lady Leopards who grinded out a tightly contested 7-6 victory on Tuesday night to wrap up District 14-4A play at Lady Leopard Field at H.E. Markham Park.

After taking a late lead in the sixth inning and watching it vanish just as quick in the seventh, Liberty-Eylau’s Keeley Norris scored the game-winning run on a throwing error with two outs in the bottom of the final stanza to send the Lady Leopard dugout into a frenzy to welcome her at home plate.

“I preach to my girls all year: Find a way to win,” Liberty-Eylau coach Kendra Cullum said. “If we do that, we will be alright and that’s what we saw tonight.”

Liberty-Eylau will go into postseason play as a second seed, while Pleasant Grove could possibly be looking at a three-way tie for a playoff spot.

“If everything works out the way it’s supposed to (Tuesday night), there will be a three-way tie,” Pleasant Grove coach Becca Collom said. “If Atlanta loses, we won’t have to deal with a tiebreaker. If they win, they will be 4-6, we are 4-6 and Pittsburg would be 4-6. We have the head-to-head against Pittsburg, but the problem is we have all beat each other twice. We beat Pittsburg twice, Atlanta has beat us twice and lost to Pittsburg twice.”

Pleasant Grove began on a roll, sending seven batters to the plate in the first inning and took the game’s first lead when Hanna Snyder crossed home on a Maddie Horn sacrifice fly. In bottom of the frame, Horn retired the side by forcing three grounders.

The Lady Leopards answered back in the second by retiring the side, which included catcher Savannah Phelps throwing a dart to second baseman Tori Foster to catch Madison Allen trying to steal.